I prefer jelly myself. Much in the same way that I don't like bits of fruit in ice cream, I don't like the bits of fruit found in jams. And jelly is the only way to go when pairing it with peanut butter. A peanut butter and jam sandwich just isn't the same...

Jeff

"Meeting Franklin Roosevelt was like opening your first bottle of champagne. Knowing him was like drinking it." - Winston Churchill

"...To undersalt deliberately in the name of dietary chic is to omit from the music of cookery the indispensable bass line over which all tastes and smells form their harmonies." -- Robert Farrar Capon

I grew up with peanut butter sandwiches, and grape jelly was the standard. I didn't enjoy the home-made jams available -- we lived far enough south that there were fig trees and my mom would make fig preserves. Too much to deal with if you're eleven years old. I still am pretty happy when I can find blackberry jelly or raspberry jelly. None of those icky seeds!

However I don't know for how long, but I've had a soft spot for strawberry jam. One of my first college girlfriends had actually spent a summer picking tiny strawberries for "Little Scarlet" the ultimate strawberry jam from Tiptree I think. I still buy that occasionally. But I think the pinnacle of strawberry jam eating was when we were in Devon, in England, and sat out on the lawn of our hotel in mid-afternoon and were served a nice pot of tea with "cream teas." It is hard for me to imagine that experience without the sort of perfect gooey strawberry jam on the unctuous Devonshire clotted cream, all spread on a delicious tender biscuit. mmmmm.

Still I don't think strawberry jam goes that well with peanut butter. But these days when I have peanut butter on toast it's usually without jam or jelly...

Depends on the application. For toast, I'd go with preserves. For a PB&J, it's definitely jelly. I take these with me for lunch on most work days, and preserves are liquidy enough that they end up leaking out the side of the sandwich and making a mess. Jelly doesn't do that. The big problem with jelly is finding it in any flavor other than grape or strawberry. The stores here have shelf after shelf of preserves and jam, but the jelly is limited to two offerings.

And I'm with Frank when it comes to the seeds - I really don't like any preserves or jam with lots of little seeds in it. I'll take something like cherry or blueberry over strawberry or raspberry any day.

don't kick out the jams, brothers and sisters - jam for me. at the hotel i stay at in chinon, the owner, Laurent, makes dozens of different types of jam from mostly local ingredients; and has even written a book on jam. this year i was lucky enough to be given a jar to take home!

and am i the only one who brings locally produced products with me to give to hoteliers who are especially helpful; or winery owners who do special things - older vintages - vineyard tours or barrel tasting? i usually bring maple syrup from MI as i am told that good products of that type are hard to find in france.

Frank Deis wrote:We went to some effort to take Vermont maple syrup to my German cousins. Turns out it's like peanut butter for some Europeans, they just don't get it. Maybe it's different in France.

The same could be said for lots of Americans who don't grow up with maple syrup (as opposed to pancake syrup). In my experience, the Europeans who like sweet things (e.g. honey, jam) will also like maple syrup, which is probably the same as in the US. Although I suppose you may be able to argue that the distinctive taste of maple syrup requires getting used to. I'm just not sure about that.

For some years now we've been eating the jams we've made from wild-fruits we've picked in the hedgerows - cherries, various types of plums -(incl mirabelles, damsons and bullaces) and blackberries, plus grapes and gooseberries from our garden, and marmalade from supermarket bought Seville oranges.

The blackberries have a lot of tiny seeds so we tried straining them out and the resultant jelly has such intense flavour its fantastic. But for all others the whole fruit is included, and chopped peel in the marmalade.